Cornell University Class of 1964

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Meeting Minutes: January 19, 2013

From: Barbara (Bobbie) Furman Attardi, Secretary

Location: Marriott Copley Place, Boston, NA

Attending:

Name	Email
Barbara Furman Attardi	battardi@aol.com
Barbara Lutz Brim	barbarabrim@comcast.net
Nancy Taylor Butler	nanbutler@aol.com
Tim Davis	TimothyWDavis@aol.com
Marcia Goldschlager Epstein (by teleconference)	mepstein@ccp.edu
Beverly Feinberg-Moss	bmf22@me.com
Alice Friedenson	aef7@cornell.edu
Bob Friedenson	raf14@cornell.edu
Elliot Gordon	SoundScience@comcast.net
Judie Pink Gorra	judiepink@yahoo.com
Susan Mair Holden	smholden@optonline.net
Janet Spencer King	janet.sp.king@verizon.net
Judy Mabel	jmabel02@gmail.com
Linda Cohen Meltzer	lcm12@cornell.edu
Joan Melville	jmc61@cornell.edu
Carolyn Chauncey Neuman	ccn3@cornell.edu
Mike Newman	hmn2@cornell.edu
Nancy Crowder Roberts	ncr24@cornell.edu
Bill Russell	2billrussell@gmail.com
Bruce Wagner	bdw5@cornell.edu
Carolyn Stewart Whitman	csw54@comcast.net
Steve Whitman	slw@whitsbits.com
Cindy Wolloch	cwolloch@yahoo.com
Chuck Zambito	cfzambito@aol.com

 Not attending:

Toby Rice Goldberg	tobygoldberg@optonline.net
Adadot Hayes	adh27@cornell.edu
Stan Morgenstein	sm124@cornell.edu

The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. by class president Susie Holden. Marcia Epstein was unable to join us in person due to a foot injury, but she communicated by teleconferencing. We set a record for the number of attendees of our class (3rd best turnout of all classes)!

A motion was made and passed to have the minutes of the class meeting of August 11, 2012 accepted.

1. Treasurer's Report (Barbara Brim)

We have one more dues payer than in 2011. A request was made to help find lost alumni.

We’ve had extra expenses due to a deposit for Greaseband for Reunion, to a contribution to the Vanneman Scholarship fund, and to purchase and mailing of “The Life Before Us”, the book chosen for the new student reading project. This was sent to donors/dues payers and/or Reunion attendees (about 350 were send at a cost of about $10.00 each). Next year we will ask alums to opt into the reading program and discuss the book at Reunion.
 

2. Class Newsletter Report (Carolyn Whitman)

Send Carolyn any news so that she can get this out by mid-March (We can’t piggyback on a University mailing as of this year so it will cost more). Shall we send something re Reunion along with the newsletter? We discussed whether to send the newsletter/reunion updates by email or as hard copy. We were the first class to send a newsletter and believe this has contributed to a higher number of dues payers.

3. CACO’s New Dues Structure (Susie Holden)

There will be an increase in dues. CACO has standardized this:

	Current	New
Individuals	$45	$55
Couples	$65	$65
Individuals, without Cornell Alumni Magazine	$20	$30

Bob Friedenson moved that we waive dues for anyone who makes this request, but the motion was defeated.

4. Reunion Update (Linda Meltzer, Joan Melville and Bruce Wagner)

Joan reported on the ’62 50th Reunion:

- The good: greeters, aides, forum

- The bad: not enough message boards, venue map in small scale, dry cereal for breakfast, no ongoing coffee etc.

- The ugly: poor sound system Saturday night

Linda discussed our plans for reunion evenings:

- Friday night: The Fabulous Greaseband (rock oldies)

- Saturday night: another band (Backtalk); also Cornelliana at Bailey Hall (9-10 p.m.) at which 5th, 50th and 85th Reunion classes are honored, so there is excitement. Space is reserved for these classes, and the Glee Club puts on a show. Bailey Hall has been redone and is air conditioned, dry, and has handicapped and wheelchair access. Most classmates seem interested in this.
Options: Stay and dance, go to Cornelliana and return to dance for 2 hours (i.e. 10:30-12:30), or go to acapella performances at Goldwin Smith Hall.

- Thursday night: tongue-in-cheek survey of class as done for the 40th Reunion.

Memorial Service: Nancy and Steve Einhorn are in charge of Memorial Service. (Note: If someone passes away, notify Lauren Morgenstern at Cornell first).
 

5. JFK Program and Scholarship Report (Cindy Wolloch)

Glenn Altschuler will present the first hour of the Forum at Reunion. He will mention JFK in his talk and provide a segue into Cindy/JFK which will be the second part of the Forum. Glenn Altschuler is a chaired professor of American Studies and the VP of University Relations in charge of the sesquicentennial celebration in 2015. He is also writing a book about Cornell history since World War II that will be published about the time of our Reunion.

We will need the results of the survey of the JFK grantees (see below) to finalize the program. One of the Reunion chairs will probably host the Forum.
Cindy gave a brief update on the 2012 winner, Kit Dobyns, who won a Rhodes scholarship and will be going to Oxford in the fall but is beginning his JFK-related development work this spring anyway. The 2013 competition will get underway soon, with Day Hall appointing a replacement for Coni Robinson, who will retire this spring. Mike Newman and Carolyn Neuman met with Coni earlier in the fall to express the class’s thanks and give her gifts from us.

The committee remains the same as last year: Judie Pink, Tim Davis, Janet King, Jared Genser (‘95), Joyce West (‘86) and Cindy. The JFK awardees are enthusiastic, suggesting that we will have no difficulty eventually fielding a committee made up solely of former awardees. The question arose of where the award would be housed. To be explored.

Discussion then turned to the forthcoming survey of JFK award alumni. Cindy thanked the officers for their suggestions of questions. Someone (sorry – I didn’t note who) suggested including a question in the survey about whether the respondent would be willing to serve as a reader in the future.

Cindy has located about 90% of the JFK awardees, who are eager to participate in the survey, which will go out soon. The winner from 1970, if there was one, is still not identified. We discussed possible instruments. Cindy is leaning towards Survey Monkey, but Bruce also suggested Form Stack, which she will explore. The key factor is ease of response, even for a willing audience. Janet said that we could include essays and pictures in the yearbook.

The Mingus-Mulligan concert tape unfortunately turns out to have been over-recorded. Barbara Brim accepted Irwin Davis’s invoice for the transfer, but the CDs are unusable. Thus, the idea of distributing the concert CD at reunion has to be dropped unless a technical solution can be found. [PS – Bruce has listened to the CDs and confirmed that the tape was not only over-recorded but also had become badly degraded over the years.]

The other JFK event senior year was a faculty talent show. Cindy is attempting to get in touch with Sandy Vogelgesang, who is named in the Cornell Daily Sun as coordinating the show.

6. Book Signing at Reunion (Joan Melville)

Joan said that the Class of ’62 had a table of books by classmates that could be purchased and signed by the author. For example, Steve Einhorn has written a book If You Try To Please Everybody, You Will Lose Your Ass.

7. 50th Reunion Yearbook (Janet King and Elliot Gordon)
 

Forms for the yearbook will be filled out electronically and will be online for several months. Once a classmate starts to enter his/her bio, the information entered will remain online for 30 days so that a partial bio can be completed later and then submitted. We will need a current photo (headshot) of everyone. Elliot will have old pictures (from the 1964 Cornellian) and will need current ones as well as data in proper format so that it can be printed. We will have a word limit. Instructions will be provided.

Everyone volunteered to help with editing. All proofing/editing will have to be done before it goes to Elliot.

Questions for yearbook, other than basic data:
1. My most vivid Cornell memory
2. How my life is different from what I expected
3. Personal reflections

8. Affinity Group Leadership (Nancy Butler)

We will use the timeline of the class of ’73. We need people with experience with Excel to sift through data. Volunteers: Alice Friedenson, Steve Whitman, Nancy Roberts, Judy Gorra. There will be an affinity group leader (AGL) leader list. We decided to keep fundraising separate from affinity group contacts.

9. Marketing/Communications (Carolyn Whitman)

We discussed whether to use social media. Bruce says there is a Facebook Group for our class. Most of the meeting attendees have Facebook accounts. One issue is keeping the information fresh. How would we find someone to administer this (gatekeeper)? The gatekeeper would have to approve new group members, make sure information is fresh, lively, current, remove anything inappropriate. We could ask in newsletter who would be interested. Barbara Brim volunteered.

10. Cornell Fund Activity (Tim Davis)

Tim will update by email. Nancy Butler mentioned that at age 70½ we can take money out of tax-deferred accounts (e.g., IRAs) and donate to nonprofits without being taxed.

11. New Business (Susie Holden)

We discussed the possibility of getting together during the year, e.g. for the Frozen Apple at Madison Square Garden in NYC at Thanksgiving.

12. Guests At The Meeting

- Brenda Teeter is our new campaign coordinator. She will work with us and is looking for volunteers. We will transition from Rich to Brenda as 50th Reunion class.

- Kathy Davis is Director of Financial Accounts, Office of Finance. She said our treasury is in good shape and that we should attempt to solicit matching donations from employers.


Adjournment at 6:10 PM for dinner at Joe’s All American Bar and Grill